Prepping Is Doing

Prepping is doing.

Effective preppers do, not just think and plan.

They get the job they need done finished, and then they move on to the next task and DO it.

Doing.

I can’t speak for anybody but us, but I know we’ve struggled with this since we started prepping. Whether it’s “coming up with a great idea” and not following through for whatever reason or it’s procrastination, this is a real issue for the Salty & Spice household.

We’re better than we were, but it’s hard. Both of us have full time jobs plus several side gigs, so we have the opportunity to spend most of our waking moments doing something productive and still not get a single darned prep done.

You can’t eat food that isn’t there. You can’t purify water with a filter you never bought. You can’t plant a garden with seeds you don’t have, in soil you didn’t prepare. You can’t eat fruit off those trees you never planted.

Do.

We keep coming back to that word in this article because it’s the key to all prepping (and pretty much everything else for that matter.

Plan, yes. Then do.

But once you’ve done, you move on.

Move on

Once you’ve reached your goal, it’s time to move on to the next prep and do it.

This is something I personally struggle with, especially with those prepping areas I personally enjoy like firearms and light gunsmithing.

It’s all too easy to fall into this trap… “I’m saving up for that new S&W M&P” is all well and good, unless it’s the 5th AR you will have just for yourself. That’s not prepping, that’s playing with guns. 

Trust me, if I am an expert on anything it’s in spending far too much money and time on guns and ammo and fooling myself that the excess is prepping. Been there, done that. A lot. 

There’s an old addage in “Creature Feature B Movies” from the 1950’s: “When the creature dies, roll the credits”. 

That’s good prepping advice too.

The rubber’s gotta hit the road 

All too often I’ve found myself working, figuring out and identifying needs, and then spending virtually no thought, effort, time or resources in finding ways to fulfill those needs.

I’ve used this example before but I think it’s a particularly good one and easy to explain.

The need we have is ice removal. Doesn’t sound like much of a prep? Well, OK, in the larger scale it’s not, but hey, it’s an example so how about we roll with it?

The ice removal mechanism we have is Spice, some gloves and a scraper.

Spice wrote a post recently entitled “Needs Are Not Mechanisms”

Why We Prep: Needs Are Not Mechanisms

In that post she listed three things to keep in mind:

1.Figure out what the needs are.

2.Figure out what preps you need for those situations.

3.Get on it and make it happen.

Good advice, and we would all be better off if we followed it. Ourselves included.

Here’s a podcast we recorded today on this subject:

Salty’s challenge

Here’s my challenge I’m putting out there for both you and me. Do a prep today, on that needs to be done. 

I’m writing this on a lovely Saturday morning, and I will have the rest of today a head of me to do something productive.

I have a huge list of things that need to be done. It’s time for the rubber to hit my road right around here.

Not sure what I’m going to do yet (I’ll check with Spice and see what her early spring priorities are) but I’m going to do it.

How about you join me and do a productive prep today as well… and tomorrow too while we are at it.

Not sure where to start? 

Here’s a few things on my list that may inspire if you are stuck;

• 40 minutes of daily exercise at least 5 days a week
• By gun case, remove all firearms (not packed in cosmoline), clean and lubricate them.
• Move compost from compost bin to near garden (you can substitute start compost pile for this one if you don’t have a compost pile yet)
• Soil test the garden beds
• Prune trees
• Sharpen chain saw blades (If you don’t have a chain saw, today would be a good day to start shopping)
• Pull bugout bags / get home bags and refresh food items in them.
• Check bicycle tires, lube chains & do general bike maintenance

I could go on and on but you have your own list I’m sure. 

So go do. I’m heading out now myself.